CVE-2020-36193

Exp

Tar.php in Archive_Tar through 1.4.11 allows write operations with Directory Traversal due to inadequate checking of symbolic links, a related issue to CVE-2020-28948.

Published: 2021-01-18 Last update: 2025-11-07 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-36193 is rated Critical Active Threat (85.3/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 71.15%, 99th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-08-25) affecting PEAR / Archive_Tar. a weakness (CWE-22) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2020-36193

Name: PEAR Archive_Tar Improper Link Resolution Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-08-25

Action due: 2022-09-15

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-36193

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-01-20 75.35% 71.15% -4.20%
2 2026-01-15 72.18% 75.35% +3.17%
3 2025-12-28 — 72.18% —

Full EPSS history (52 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-36193

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-36193

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-36193

GHSA-rpw6-9xfx-jvcx · Severity: high · Ecosystem: composer — Directory Traversal in Archive_Tar

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-36193

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2020-36193: 1 source package rows (drupal7); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, edge-community); fixed 5, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-36193
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-36193 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (php-pear), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-36193
gentoo normal CVE-2020-36193: 1 GLSA(s) (202101-23), 1 atom(s) (dev-php/PEAR-Archive_Tar); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-36193
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-36193
suse high CVE-2020-36193 severity important: SUSE including 200 source package names (apache2-mod_php53-5.3.17-112.105.1, apache2-mod_php7, …), 685 product×package rows across 35 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.5, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, … (35 product lines)): Known Not Affected 518, Fixed 167. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-36193/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-36193 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (php-pear), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, DNE 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-36193

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-36193

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
php archive_tar <= 1.4.11 cpe:2.3:a:php:archive_tar:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 7.0, < 7.78 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 8.9.0, < 8.9.13 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 9.0.0, < 9.0.11 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
drupal drupal >= 9.1.0, < 9.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:drupal:drupal:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-36193

URL Tags
https://github.com/pear/Archive_Tar/commit/cde460582ff389404b5b3ccb59374e9b389de916 Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/01/msg00018.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/04/msg00007.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/42GPGVVFTLJYAKRI75IVB5R45NYQGEUR/ Broken Link
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FOZNK4FIIV7FSFCJNNFWMJZTTV7NFJV2/ Broken Link
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VJQQYDAOWHD6RDITDRPHFW7WY6BS3V5N/ Broken Link
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YKD5WEFA4WT6AVTMRAYBNXZNLWZHM7FH/ Broken Link
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-23 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4894 Third Party Advisory
https://www.drupal.org/sa-core-2021-001 Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-36193 US Government Resource
cvelogic Threat Intelligence